BfK Under 5s Pre - School/Nursery/Infant contd.


A charming, humorous and satisfying story which confounds      The story provides an interesting take  of a new baby leading to growing love and loyalty. The illustrations are striking and appealing and the overall   A highly engaging picturebook which  SMc


Beep Beep Beep Time for Sleep!





Claire Freedman illus Richard Smythe, Simon and Schuster, 978 1 4711 2114 2 £6-99, pbk


If you are a fan of Aliens Love Underpants, search out this new title from Freedman. The cover will attract any child interested in heavy mechanical vehicles. The bold colours zing, mostly in the primary range, capturing the eye       busy illustrations. Beep Beep Beep, Time for Sleep seems an odd title, but  together to wind down towards sleepy time snuggles. What a busy day; Vrooom! Swish! Lorries thunder past, vans and cars drive fast. Backhoe       great holes in the earth. ‘Beep! Beep! Beep!’ –it’s a reversing warning, take  a surprise- a double spread opens out  to prop as a backdrop for a child’s own       cleverly slows. “It’s getting late and digging roads will have to wait. Time to wind down, time for stopping. Hear  All the machines return to base, where they are given a wash down. Then, as sparkling stars begin to peep, one by one the vehicles fall asleep. Maybe it is the second time of reading through at bedtime, but surely by now, tired eyes are ready for sleep! This is a book to be  but the child will certainly want to read it alone later.


GB Cat’s Colours 


Airlie Anderson, Child’s Play, 32pp, 978-1-8464-3760-1, £5.99 pbk


This is a very simple, yet appealing, picture book for parents to share with very young children. The book begins with a white cat sitting under grey clouds doing ‘grey- day things’.         collect colours and each following double page spread contains one  surroundings. As Cat looks closely at each colour in the natural world, green      orange sunset and so on, a patch of the corresponding colour appears on her white fur. The appearance of all the brightly coloured kittens at the end of the book will be a delightful surprise for young children.         brief and there is no real story but it


will work well as a book to share, with parents able to use it to encourage       in the natural world. Cat is very appealing with her strong outline and     incorporate pleasing, rolling shapes and the contrast between the bright colours and the grey background works very well. This picture book will take  landscape encouraging observation and vocabulary along the way.


SR Ralf 


Jean Jullien, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books 54pp, 978-1-8478-0818-9, £10.99, hbk


Ralf is a dog, a family pet. To be precise he is a dog with a very long body. Ralf is comfortable in his family though feels quite sad when they get a bit fed up with him, which they do  to get in their way. However a long body proves handy when Ralf realises there is an emergency, the house is   to try to wake the family and squeeze  trouble is all this squeezing causes Ralf’s already long body to stretch and stretch and STRETCH! So much so that he becomes an escape slide for the trapped family from their bedroom window. Ralf and his long body save the day and he feels loved and appreciated by his family. This is a stylish debut picturebook


from French designer Jean Julien. An amusing if rather strange story with an appealing character. The book is cleverly designed, open it out and you will see the full length of Ralf’s body proudly displayed in orange on the black background. The end papers are fun too with lots of sausage dogs to count. SMc


The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend





Dan Santat, Andersen Press Ltd, 40pp, 978-1-78344-384-0, £11.99, hbk


There is an island far away, where imaginary friends are created. All the imaginary friends wait there to be imagined by a real child. One by one, the imaginary friends are chosen, until  something that no other imaginary friend  his special child in the real world. He searches far and wide, and even meets some of his imaginary friends from the  – a shy, young girl who loves to draw. They become friends and she gives him a name – Beekle. This is a wonderful book about friendship, imagination and courage. The gentle storyline is full of sympathy and empathy. It looks at the  friendship and the imaginative world       simple – the importance of friendship – but it contains deeper layers of meaning, about loneliness, love


22 Books for Keeps No.217 March 2016


and the courage to do something different. At the same time, it is compassionate and reassuring, showing great psychological insight. The clever illustrations are beautifully drawn. They successfully visualise an imaginary world. They also contain some beautiful and haunting        picture of the tree with star-shaped leaves where the imaginary friend        time. The powerful feelings created by the artwork are reminiscent of the Dog Blue by Polly Dunbar and The Red Tree by Shaun Tan. The story has been written carefully and thoughtfully and is perfectly matched by the brilliant illustrations. This is a book to treasure, and its enduring message about friendship will not date. The Adventures of Beekle: The


Unimaginary Friend was originally published in the USA and won the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 2015.


Dozy Bear and the Secret of Sleep





Katie Blackburn, ill Richard Smythe, Faber & Faber, 32pp, 978-0-5713-3019-5, £6.99 pbk


A lullaby without the music is this  is gently lulled to sleep by his family members. His Mummy tells him there is ‘no secret to sleeping’ but talks about the surrounding darkness; Papa teaches him a technique that involves wiggling his various body parts one by one to help him settle. Then comes Nana who suggests sinking down into the softness of his bed; and Granpy Bear talks of listening to the night – its hum of quiet and stillness. All around Dozy, the other animals are fast asleep and now Dozy himself is close to sleeping       him to take long, deep breaths innn – and ouuuuuut … repeated over and  off into the world of nod. This is very much a read aloud at bedtime book and one I’m sure a good many parents will welcome with open arms; its hypnotic quality certainly has the desired effect: it’s almost like yoga nidra for the very young. There is plenty in Richard Smythe’s collage style illustrations to hold the interest of the more alert listeners; his scenes perfectly capture the       slumbering animals Dozy thinks about look completely blissed out. They are certainly well worth revisiting at a time when adults are not using the book as a sleep inducer.


JB I’ll Wait, Mr Panda 


Steve Antony, Hodder Children’s Books, 32pp, 978 444 91666 9, £11.99 hbk


Steve Antony does it again, dishing up a delicious treat of a sequel to Please Mr Panda. On this occasion the po-faced Mr P. is in his kitchen rustling up, as he tells the stream of eager animal inquirers, ‘a surprise’.    our pinny clad cook is concocting with


ARa


his culinary equipment? For the most part, the answer is a resounding no; but there is one little penguin with the necessary


patience, and he certainly needs plenty of the latter as he has rather  all in Mr Panda’s kitchen. So what is it that eventually emerges


staying power and


from that oven of our gastronomic  pudding is on the pinny – so to speak and it’s certainly worth a wow! from  a little bit overwhelmed. Steve Antony manages once again


to combine simplicity with depth: his wonderful characterisation,      of suspense for a young audience, and mouth-watering endpapers that       consumption mean that this has all the ingredients for a wholly satisfying   and child listeners. JB


Unstoppable Max 


Julia Patton, Oxford University Press, 32pp, 978-0-1927-4410-4, £6.99 pbk


                       put on his ‘thinking hat’ to decide what to do. His thoughts aren’t terribly practical: should he do something sensible, something naughty, or something crazy? In the end, he does none of those things and comes up with other solutions. Mum doesn’t see his ploys and seems to think he has done well when she comes back, but what will happen when he is told to brush his teeth! The illustrations for this story are clever and fun, but I have         through was confusing, the second not much better, and it took several others to see the whole point of the story. I       the story understandable without a lot       be a book that ends up in the back of the cupboard rather than a dog-eared old favourite, and that would be a pity.        that he isn’t keen about going to bed, but then what child is? He does stop to think about how to solve his three requests from mum, and his solutions are clever and sometimes unique, but they don’t make him unstoppable. I’m sorry to be negative about a story that has much to commend it, but it needs some work to


make it clearer. ES How to Find Gold


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Viviane Schwarz, Walker Books, 32pp, 978 1 4063 6213 8, £11.99


This very special picture book is a work of wonder. Immediately immersive,  her crocodile companion. He’s the voice of reason – it will be dangerous  go!’ And they do; drawing maps with a cross to mark the spot, diving for the sunken treasure and then working out what it is they should do with it. However unusual it is for a picture


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